Friday, October 14, 2011

Friday roundup

This week I pulled out a quilt top that I've had done for months. And I quilted it.

Here it is.

There's one more row, but I couldn't get it to hang if it showed.

And here's the back.

It's wonky piano keys. I used 1930s reproduction fabric, which is out of my comfort zone. But I love it.

The pups probably have something to do with that.

This is the smoothest my quilting has been! And this little top is so happy to finally get quilted. Yup, I just anthropomorphized a quilt top.

I think I'll bind it in white. I've been on a white binding kick lately, and I have some left over from my last project. It's enough to finish three sides, so I don't have much more to make.

Last night after work I made a new cellphone-card holder case. It's a project that's been on my mind for a while, and suddenly seemed important with my trip to Seattle rapidly approaching. My old case was was d-i-r-t-y and the button placement was starting to bother me. The new one is the same size but has a Velcro closure.

I love those moons.

The outside and pocket fabric are a heavier linen-cotton blend (Heather Ross' Far Far Away II and III). I sandwiched two layers of muslin between the pocket front and back for stability. The lining is quilting cotton.

The case is padded with bamboo batting. I drop things a lot, and I know the batting in my old case saved my phone from many a sidewalk death. I also sprayed it like crazy with Scotchguard. Here's hoping that keeps the staining down.

I've made a few of these cases now. The first had a flap and the second had a loop-and-button closure. I was tentative about the Velcro because of the noise, but snaps didn't seem like a good option because I'd be pressing down on the phone to shut the case.

A package came today with some new fabric!

How manly, right? Good, because it's for a man -- my little brother!

He turns 25 soon, and that freaks me out.

So from left to right, that's Konas in Orange, Jade, Earth and Daffodil. And then it's Essex Linen in PFD and Sand. I really like the Sand color. It's the grey I've been searching for to put in recent projects.

I prewashed today in warm water. I figure that my brother, being a guy, might not pay close attention to washer settings or that this quilt might get dirty and need a warm-water wash. So I got the shrinking and color running out of the way.

Score one for Shout Color Catches.

The white one in front is an unused sheet. See how much it ran?

So tonight I'm going to (I hope) make some more binding and sew it on my quilt front. Then I'll leave that project downstairs to work on in bits and pieces while we watch movies and the like. Upstairs in the sewing room, it's going to be all Al's quilt all the time.